Ep310: Outside Sneaking In

Can we ever truly be safe living in a bubble? Physics, chemistry, and microbiology teach us that it's impossible to avoid dealing with industrial and traffic pollution, water contaminants, sewer system upgrades (whoa that part), your workplace, fast fashion, and wildfire smoke (plus third-hand smoke, which you might not even have heard of yet). And what happens when the outdoor world and our indoor world meet and react?

Featured researchers and experts:
Miriam Diamond, Environmental Chemist at University of Toronto
Marianne Hatzopoulou, Air Quality Researcher at University of Toronto
Sarah Henderson, Indoor Air Researcher at British Columbia Centers for Disease Control
Elliott Gall, Air Quality Researcher at Portland State University
Delphine Farmer, Atmospheric Chemist at Colorado State University
Andrew Whelton, Water Safety Researcher at Purdue University
Mike Marquez, Water Filtration Technician
Jeffrey Siegel, Indoor Air Quality Researcher at University of Toronto
Lauren Garofalo, Atmospheric Chemist at Colorado State University
Michael Link, Analytical Chemist at NIST

Also featuring UrbanScanner, the Center for Plumbing Safety and their research on Cured-In-Place Pipe technology, the art of chemistry visualization by our friend Kamil Czapiga and lots of footage courtesy of Creative Commons and the US DOD. The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.

DIVE DEEPER WITH THESE RESOURCES:

TRANSCRIPT:

01;00;01;00 "- Is air pollution affecting the brains"

01;00;03;15 of the human population?

01;00;06;04 Absolutely.

01;00;07;16 "- There's no escape from air pollution,"

01;00;09;23 and everyone's exposed to it.

01;00;11;17 "- What happens when a home interacts with pollution?"

01;00;15;13 "- Everybody historically has assumed"

01;00;17;19 "that if you build a building to code,"

01;00;19;26 everything's fine.

01;00;21;07 "- What we're exposed to in different environments"

01;00;23;21 comes home with you.

01;00;25;04 "- [Child] ""Home Diagnosis"" is made possible"

01;00;27;15 by support from Broan-NuTone.

01;00;29;27 Better air, better life.

01;00;32;14 By the Got Mold? Test Kit.

01;00;34;16 Real science, real simple.

01;00;36;24 By AirCycler, Retrotec,

01;00;39;12 Rockwool and RenewAire.

01;00;41;25 "By generous support from these underwriters"

01;00;44;13 and by viewers like you.

01;00;46;28 (upbeat music)

01;00;48;14 "- Can we ever truly be safe living in a bubble?"

01;00;52;12 "- Because we lived in our TinyLab for five years,"

01;00;55;05 "people tend to ask us if a tiny house"

01;00;57;05 "can get them away from unhealthy living situations,"

01;00;59;23 "and we usually try to talk them out of it."

01;01;02;11 "- Physics, chemistry and microbiology"

01;01;04;13 "shows us it's basically impossible,"

01;01;06;14 especially in a tiny space,

01;01;08;01 "to escape contaminants coming from inside materials"

01;01;10;22 and outdoor pollution.

01;01;12;16 "- But what we'll be asking here is,"

01;01;14;08 "what happens when the outdoor world"

01;01;16;12 and our indoor world

01;01;17;22 meet and react?

01;01;18;26 (pensive music)

01;01;22;09 "- [Announcer] It's the shields we build,"

01;01;29;26 and the risks we take.

01;01;35;25 "It's the disasters that will test us,"

01;01;42;08 and what will grow from them.

01;01;47;17 It's real life.

01;01;51;10 "And the physics, chemistry and microbiology"

01;01;54;12 of the science of homes.

01;02;03;12 Chemicals are mobile.

01;02;05;15 "Let's take, for example, this lipstick,"

01;02;09;09 which I brought in.

01;02;10;07 I don't normally wear lipstick,

01;02;11;10 but for this interview,

01;02;12;12 I thought I would wear lipstick.

01;02;14;06 "So this lipstick likely contains a plasticizer."

01;02;18;14 "That plasticizer isn't chemically bonded,"

01;02;21;02 "I'm exposed just by ingesting the lipstick,"

01;02;24;23 but also a little bit of it

01;02;26;09 "is going to degas or go into the air."

01;02;28;29 "The same is true of flame retardants,"

01;02;30;19 the same is true of PFAS,

01;02;31;25 "the same is true of all these chemicals,"

01;02;34;10 these rub onto your skin,

01;02;36;10 these rub onto your clothing.

01;02;37;20 (upbeat music)

01;02;39;00 Those provide opportunities

01;02;40;24 "for the chemicals to move from one environment to another."

01;02;44;07 "- Outdoor air pollution still remains"

01;02;48;08 a very important predictor

01;02;51;20 "of a whole range of health effects."

01;02;53;09 "Outdoor air pollution makes its way inside the homes"

01;02;56;12 through the building envelopes,

01;02;57;27 "through windows, through the ventilation system,"

01;03;00;20 through all sorts of pathways.

01;03;02;16 "But also, importantly, because people spend time as well"

01;03;06;10 in outdoor environments,

01;03;07;23 "and especially in large metropolitan areas"

01;03;11;11 "where a big portion of the world population lives,"

01;03;14;27 "we have these urban microenvironments"

01;03;17;11 near very busy roads

01;03;19;01 "where you have high level of traffic,"

01;03;21;06 very tall buildings

01;03;23;00 "that create sort of these urban canyons"

01;03;25;11 that tend to trap air pollution.

01;03;28;05 "We get these air pollution hotspots."

01;03;31;21 "- So there's a few different mechanisms at play here."

01;03;34;07 "First of all, it causes irritation."

01;03;36;29 "It's a foreign body in your lungs,"

01;03;38;27 your lungs don't like that.

01;03;40;29 "Second of all, it causes inflammation."

01;03;43;23 "So these small particles in your lung,"

01;03;45;27 "your body considers them to be a foreign invader,"

01;03;48;29 like a bacteria or a virus,

01;03;51;23 "and it sets up an immunological response."

01;03;55;07 "And because there's so many particles there,"

01;03;58;24 "the immunological response goes a little bit haywire"

01;04;02;06 "and that causes inflammation in the lungs,"

01;04;04;29 "and that inflammation can carry over into the whole body."

01;04;09;11 "Finally, the very smallest of the particles"

01;04;11;21 "can actually translocate across the lung"

01;04;15;07 and into the bloodstream,

01;04;16;25 "and then they're circulating throughout the entire body,"

01;04;20;05 including the brain,

01;04;21;14 "where they're causing more damage"

01;04;23;08 to different organ systems.

01;04;26;23 There's clear evidence

01;04;28;15 "that exposure to air pollution over the lifetime"

01;04;31;23 is associated with dementia.

01;04;35;07 "People's brains don't function as well"

01;04;38;17 on more polluted days

01;04;40;05 "than they do on less polluted days."

01;04;42;03 School performance in children

01;04;44;05 "who live in higher-pollution areas"

01;04;46;04 is not as good as in children

01;04;48;16 "who live in lower-pollution area."

01;04;50;13 So is air pollution,

01;04;53;04 including wildfire smoke,

01;04;54;25 "affecting the brains of the human population?"

01;04;59;04 Absolutely.

01;05;01;29 "During adverse, outdoor, air-quality conditions,"

01;05;05;26 "the sort of standard public health advice"

01;05;08;04 "that comes from most governmental agencies"

01;05;10;08 "is go inside, close up your doors and windows."

01;05;15;01 That's always there.

01;05;16;12 "And then the second piece that you sometimes see,"

01;05;19;11 "and there's often opposing advice here,"

01;05;22;24 is run your HVAC system,

01;05;25;11 or don't run your HVAC system.

01;05;28;06 And so I think this is a point

01;05;29;18 where building scientists

01;05;31;05 "can really improve our public health guidance."

01;05;35;03 "I think the idea behind the advice"

01;05;37;22 to run your HVAC system is,

01;05;40;10 """Just circulate air through an HVAC system"

01;05;42;21 that has a filter,

01;05;44;00 perhaps you're gonna remove

01;05;45;06 "some of the harmful particulate matter"

01;05;47;11 "that sort of sneaks its way inside your home."""

01;05;50;03 "So if your outdoor air quality challenge"

01;05;52;06 "is a particle air pollution event,"

01;05;54;15 "there might be some benefit there."

01;05;56;22 "If there are harmful gas-phase compounds"

01;05;58;28 "that you're really worried about,"

01;06;00;12 "most homes don't have a filter that can address that,"

01;06;03;01 "so running your HVAC system won't have any benefit."

01;06;06;18 "And then I think what's more subtle"

01;06;08;00 is that running your HVAC system

01;06;11;13 can change how much outdoor air

01;06;14;21 "comes into your indoor environment,"

01;06;16;24 "even though most homes in the US,"

01;06;19;05 "your HVAC system, your air conditioning system,"

01;06;22;14 "isn't intentionally bringing in outdoor air."

01;06;24;11 "Because you're moving air throughout your house,"

01;06;27;14 "you might have more air coming in over here"

01;06;29;07 "and less air coming in over there,"

01;06;31;03 "it can change how your building envelope"

01;06;33;08 "interacts with the surrounding environment,"

01;06;35;07 "and in some cases, you might suck in more outside air"

01;06;38;12 "than if you weren't running your HVAC system."

01;06;40;14 "So I suspect that their advice is basically saying,"

01;06;43;04 "Let's not risk that.

01;06;45;14 "If people turn on their HVAC systems,"

01;06;46;24 they might see more outside air

01;06;48;05 getting sucked into the home.

01;06;49;19 "We don't want that during this terrible derailment"

01;06;52;13 "that emitted a bunch of hazardous compounds"

01;06;55;01 into the outside air."

01;06;58;13 - Okay, so indoors,

01;07;00;12 "we know that there are huge numbers"

01;07;02;26 "of organic and inorganic molecules"

01;07;04;16 "that just move between surfaces and the air,"

01;07;07;11 "and they just exchange all the time."

01;07;09;24 But what we don't know

01;07;11;19 is how outdoor air pollution

01;07;13;10 and indoor air pollution mix,

01;07;15;16 "and what that means to the air that we breathe."

01;07;17;15 Things that we have seen so far,

01;07;19;11 "when you add urban smog into a home"

01;07;22;17 in the middle of a big city,

01;07;24;29 we're seeing chemical reactions

01;07;27;04 "that are actually making these tiny, tiny little particles"

01;07;29;25 that you can then breathe in.

01;07;31;26 That was a bit of a surprise.

01;07;33;10 "So what happens when that ozone comes into the house,"

01;07;35;28 it reacts really quickly

01;07;37;08 with all of these organic gases

01;07;39;07 "that are just sitting around inside your home,"

01;07;41;26 "things that have come off the walls of the paint,"

01;07;45;07 and all of the other activities

01;07;46;20 "that have happened over the last few years,"

01;07;48;15 "those molecules now suddenly have a tendency"

01;07;51;04 to come together,

01;07;52;10 "and they form little tiny new particles."

01;07;55;07 "And then those aerosol particles slowly grow"

01;07;58;03 as other gases just hop in.

01;08;00;13 "And so then we form these larger and larger particles."

01;08;04;01 "And those particles are all now present in the air"

01;08;07;20 "that we might be breathing inside a home."

01;08;12;11 "- [Corbett] The cocktail of chemicals and microbes"

01;08;14;18 "that we're exposed to in our homes is,"

01;08;16;12 of course, in the air,

01;08;17;14 but it's also in the water.

01;08;19;02 "- [Grace] Of course, when it comes to the science of homes,"

01;08;20;29 we rely on the testing.

01;08;22;27 Thankfully, a lot of these tests

01;08;24;12 are not cost prohibitive.

01;08;26;07 And you can test for chlorine,

01;08;28;04 "you can test for total dissolved solids,"

01;08;30;15 "you can really start to take ownership of your own water."

01;08;35;08 "- We get involved with helping people in communities"

01;08;38;17 "that have questions about their water."

01;08;40;12 So, "Why's this water smell bad?

01;08;43;11 Why's it look weird?

01;08;45;14 "Why isn't it coming out of my faucet"

01;08;47;08 and will it harm you?"

01;08;48;28 One of the issues we study

01;08;50;09 "is how water changes when it enters your plumbing,"

01;08;55;00 "whether it be coming from a city water system or a well,"

01;08;59;00 how the chemistry changes,

01;09;00;26 how the microbiology changes,

01;09;03;09 "as it travels from the entry point below the street"

01;09;06;26 or below the ground,

01;09;07;27 all the way to the faucet.

01;09;09;09 - You have your brine tank,

01;09;11;07 your carbon tank,

01;09;12;05 and your softener tank as well.

01;09;14;07 You put salt inside the system

01;09;15;18 to clean the actual tank itself.

01;09;17;17 "It's not there to touch the water,"

01;09;19;08 it's not gonna go in your water.

01;09;20;16 "Its sole purpose is to just clean this system."

01;09;23;21 "- Softeners are basically columns"

01;09;26;16 "that are packed with plastic beads."

01;09;28;29 There can be 10 million or more

01;09;31;02 "plastic beads in a little column."

01;09;33;12 From a surface area perspective,

01;09;35;24 "that is like 30 home plumbing systems."

01;09;39;10 That surface area is real estate

01;09;41;26 for organisms to grow

01;09;43;13 "and real estate to reduce the concentration"

01;09;47;03 of chemical disinfectant.

01;09;49;02 In the United States,

01;09;50;27 "there's a requirement for regulated water systems"

01;09;53;17 "to add a chemical disinfectant to the water."

01;09;56;02 "So once it leaves a treatment facility or the well,"

01;09;59;14 "there has to be some type of chemical disinfectant"

01;10;01;21 that travels with that water

01;10;03;25 as it gets to the building.

01;10;05;14 The assumption has always been

01;10;06;27 "that the water makes it to the faucet"

01;10;08;17 with chlorine in it.

01;10;10;04 And some of the work that we did

01;10;11;12 "found that, actually, in one water utility,"

01;10;14;08 25% of the time,

01;10;15;19 "they weren't actually delivering chlorinated water"

01;10;17;23 to the building.

01;10;19;21 "And so that's why you really have"

01;10;20;24 "to have good maintenance practices"

01;10;22;16 with your softeners.

01;10;24;00 "Many of us, they just exist in the basement"

01;10;26;28 "and you may not even have known that it was there."

01;10;29;17 If you're buying a new home,

01;10;31;18 don't just use a softener,

01;10;33;18 call somebody to disinfect it.

01;10;35;08 "We actually removed softeners from people's homes"

01;10;37;28 that had sat dormant

01;10;39;09 "while it was on the market for like six months,"

01;10;41;18 and it was gross.

01;10;43;06 "So you really don't want that water"

01;10;44;27 going through your plumbing.

01;10;46;19 You want it to be disinfected,

01;10;48;12 flushed down the drain,

01;10;49;23 and reset that softener.

01;10;51;13 "- Aside from the salt and the softener,"

01;10;53;09 this middle piece, the filter,

01;10;55;02 can you tell us about this?

01;10;56;10 So this Is your carbon tank.

01;10;57;24 "This particular tank that you have here"

01;10;59;11 "actually has cat carbon inside of it."

01;11;01;12 "There are actually two different types of carbons."

01;11;03;11 "I know the. - Cat isn't burned cats?"

01;11;05;01 "- No, not burned cats. - Okay."

01;11;05;29 (laughing) No, definitely not.

01;11;06;26 It stands for catalytic.

01;11;08;15 "And so what's the kind that you put into our system?"

01;11;11;18 we used coconut shell carbon.

01;11;13;09 "Basically what they do in that process,"

01;11;14;22 "they're taking coconut shells, they're crushing 'em,"

01;11;16;18 "they're basically putting 'em on fire, burning 'em,"

01;11;18;21 "and then they're putting 'em inside the tank."

01;11;20;29 "- One of the things that's always been"

01;11;22;01 a little confusing to me

01;11;23;15 "is you actually used burned media to clean your water,"

01;11;27;05 which is so counterintuitive.

01;11;29;08 "But when you know more about the carbon process,"

01;11;32;13 it all makes sense.

01;11;33;20 "- [Corbett] Okay, so this is coconut carbon?"

01;11;36;23 - [Mike] Correct.

01;11;38;07 "- [Corbett] And so one, you call these grains, right?"

01;11;40;20 - One granule,

01;11;42;00 "one of these singular granules right here"

01;11;43;18 "actually has a football field surface area."

01;11;46;10 "- So this is what's in the older filters,"

01;11;48;12 "including the one that we put in our house."

01;11;49;25 "What is in this one that makes it special?"

01;11;51;24 "- So when you use catalytic carbon,"

01;11;53;18 "catalytic carbon will take out the chloramines in water."

01;11;56;11 "One of the things that we have noticed"

01;11;57;17 is a lot of municipalities

01;11;59;08 "are using chloramines to treat their water"

01;12;01;27 because it's less expensive.

01;12;03;25 "- Chloramine is chlorine wrapped in ammonia, right?"

01;12;06;24 "- Correct. - So it has"

01;12;07;22 a different chemical property.

01;12;09;14 It'll last longer,

01;12;10;20 it goes through the system

01;12;11;27 "and does a better job over a long term,"

01;12;14;06 "which means they can use less of it"

01;12;15;23 and so it makes it cheaper.

01;12;17;04 "But then it has this other chemical property"

01;12;19;09 "of bypassing entirely a lot of the filter systems"

01;12;21;27 "that are out there. - Correct."

01;12;22;22 That are the coconut

01;12;24;03 "shell carbon like we have. - Shell carbons, yeah."

01;12;25;09 "And the good thing about these filters"

01;12;26;22 is they're fully customizable.

01;12;28;07 "So depending on the chemistry of your water in the area,"

01;12;30;14 we can always customize

01;12;31;25 "to what the homeowner needs for their chemistry."

01;12;34;12 "- Fundamentally, what you're trying to do"

01;12;36;07 is take things out of the water

01;12;38;21 or out of the air

01;12;39;24 "so that you can drink or breathe it."

01;12;41;08 The exact same concept,

01;12;43;20 "but air is very different from water"

01;12;46;02 "in terms of the volume that you breathe in."

01;12;48;20 "So the typical person probably breathes in"

01;12;51;15 10 or 20 times, by mass, of air

01;12;54;26 as they drink of water.

01;12;56;13 And so your air filter

01;12;57;27 "is just as important as your water filter,"

01;13;00;20 if not more so.

01;13;02;08 - So water and oil and air,

01;13;05;02 they're all fluids,

01;13;06;18 "but they all behave very, very differently."

01;13;09;16 "Because you've made salad dressings,"

01;13;11;04 "you know that water and oil do not mix,"

01;13;14;08 "and that there are certain compounds"

01;13;16;13 "that will happily stay with the water,"

01;13;18;29 like lemon juice,

01;13;20;07 and there are other compounds

01;13;22;03 "that will prefer to stay with the oil."

01;13;24;27 "And so we can think about a third phase,"

01;13;27;03 "the top of your salad dressing, the air."

01;13;29;08 "And so that's what we have suddenly in a house"

01;13;31;24 "when we've added a huge amount of humidity,"

01;13;33;24 we've made water films,

01;13;35;18 "you also have all the cooking grease"

01;13;38;11 and the skin oils.

01;13;40;07 Those are still in a home,

01;13;41;22 and you have the air space.

01;13;43;10 "So now we have turned the house into, effectively,"

01;13;46;26 a jar of salad dressing.

01;13;48;00 "So we see different types of films"

01;13;49;29 "evolving on different types of particles."

01;13;54;09 People measure the pH of soil,

01;13;56;27 "people measure the pH of their swimming pool,"

01;13;59;24 "they'll measure the pH of canning goods"

01;14;02;28 if you're a home cook.

01;14;05;19 "These are all-important properties,"

01;14;06;23 they change how well your soil

01;14;08;29 "will grow different types of vegetables,"

01;14;10;28 "or how safe your swimming pool is to be in."

01;14;15;00 "We don't know how to measure the pH inside a home."

01;14;19;01 So this is one way

01;14;20;16 "to start getting a little bit of information"

01;14;23;07 about the pH of a building.

01;14;26;02 "We have alternately added acids and bases to the house."

01;14;32;06 "And the base that we used is ammonia,"

01;14;34;06 which is one that we all exhale.

01;14;37;08 "Then we added another really common compound"

01;14;40;27 that you exhale,

01;14;42;11 and this is CO2.

01;14;43;20 So carbon dioxide,

01;14;45;13 "when it gets onto water surfaces,"

01;14;47;18 forms carbonic acid.

01;14;49;11 "And we could actually watch what happens"

01;14;52;14 "when we change the acidity of the house."

01;14;56;08 "We force a whole set of molecules"

01;14;58;23 "that are either really acidic or really basic"

01;15;00;18 "to come off the walls and into the air,"

01;15;02;13 "where it's a lot easier for us to measure them."

01;15;04;19 And why that's important

01;15;06;10 "is that different types of viruses and bacteria"

01;15;08;26 "can live in different conditions."

01;15;11;17 "So we don't even know what the acidity inside a home is,"

01;15;16;11 "but this gives us one way to probe it inside one home"

01;15;20;02 "using simple gases that we just exhale every minute."

01;15;26;07 "- The question of outdoor air pollution"

01;15;29;07 "and its impact in indoor environments"

01;15;33;06 "is quite complex for multiple reasons."

01;15;36;14 I mean, first of all,

01;15;38;03 "the level at which you live matters, right?"

01;15;41;21 "If you live in a building at floor number 15 or 16,"

01;15;46;20 "yes, chances are you will be exposed to lower pollutants"

01;15;50;26 "than if you are living at ground level,"

01;15;53;07 "closer to the sources of air pollution."

01;15;55;22 "But the building envelope matters"

01;15;57;23 "and the windows and the ventilation system."

01;16;03;02 Most of my work is field work.

01;16;04;26 "Our biggest tool right now is Urban Scanner."

01;16;07;24 "So Urban Scanner is this small vehicle"

01;16;11;01 that we've equipped

01;16;12;07 "with a wide range of measurement devices."

01;16;16;13 So it has a 360-degree camera,

01;16;18;14 there's a Lidar,

01;16;19;29 "there's an ultrasonic wind anemometer"

01;16;22;13 "and a whole bunch of air pollution measurement devices."

01;16;25;23 The main idea behind the car

01;16;27;14 "is to really understand this air pollution"

01;16;32;08 in urban microenvironments.

01;16;34;24 The neighborhood level,

01;16;36;00 the street level,

01;16;37;03 "get as close as possible to homes"

01;16;39;17 and to where people live, right,

01;16;41;07 where people are spending time,

01;16;43;11 "and be able to relate the level of air pollution we measure"

01;16;48;04 "with the images of the urban environment."

01;16;51;07 "So we can move from one street to another,"

01;16;53;06 "and the levels could be cut by half or could double."

01;16;55;29 We use sort of the image, then,

01;16;58;06 to predict air pollution.

01;16;59;16 "Just from looking at the built environment,"

01;17;01;28 we can sort of predict or guess

01;17;03;20 "what the air pollution level's gonna be like."

01;17;08;08 "- Sewer pipes are failing across the country."

01;17;11;24 And so that has to stop,

01;17;13;16 "and the only way to do that is to dig up"

01;17;16;10 and replace the pipe

01;17;18;05 or repair it in place.

01;17;21;17 "The cured-in-place pipe technology"

01;17;23;18 takes a tube sock

01;17;26;03 "that is saturated with chemicals, like resin,"

01;17;29;12 "and it's dragged through the sewer pipe below the ground."

01;17;33;16 "They take steam and pump it into that tube sock"

01;17;37;23 to cause a chemical reaction,

01;17;39;15 "which transforms it into a hard plastic inside that pipe."

01;17;44;06 For the steam-based process,

01;17;45;24 which is the least expensive,

01;17;47;11 they use styrene-based resins,

01;17;49;15 "which are the least expensive resins,"

01;17;51;19 "and this plastic manufacturing waste blows out."

01;17;55;02 "These big clouds of white stuff is not steam,"

01;18;00;03 "it's a whole bunch of different pollution."

01;18;02;06 "That waste sometimes goes up sewer laterals"

01;18;05;17 into buildings.

01;18;07;05 "The contractors are using about 20 PSI of pressure"

01;18;11;13 "to keep that uncured resin tube against the pipe wall"

01;18;14;19 "and actually can blow out the P-trap."

01;18;16;27 So we've seen where contractors

01;18;18;29 tell people ahead of time

01;18;20;09 to wrap their toilets with tape

01;18;23;21 "because they expect the pressure could come in"

01;18;26;12 "and blow out the water in the toilet's P-trap"

01;18;29;26 or the faucet's P-trap.

01;18;32;17 "In other cases, in Good Hope, Illinois,"

01;18;34;25 there was such a high pressure

01;18;37;14 "that it was whistling coming out of the drains"

01;18;39;25 "and the emissions were coming into the post office."

01;18;43;25 "And that's where we've seen schools become evacuated,"

01;18;45;27 people go to hospitals.

01;18;47;01 The fire department shows up

01;18;48;08 "and just doesn't understand what's going on."

01;18;50;26 So they should be valving off

01;18;53;16 "the private properties from the rest of the sewer system"

01;18;56;05 "while they fix that sewer system,"

01;18;58;02 and that's not done.

01;19;00;29 "- So I grew up in British Columbia,"

01;19;02;24 and then lived in California,

01;19;05;02 and now in Colorado.

01;19;06;13 "And one thing that unites all of those locations"

01;19;09;08 "is that we have always been subject to wildfire smoke."

01;19;12;21 "And the more I started looking into the science,"

01;19;15;06 "the more I realized that wildfire smoke"

01;19;17;22 is really complicated.

01;19;19;15 "It depends on what fuel you're burning"

01;19;21;24 and how hot it's burning

01;19;23;15 "and how far away you are from where the fire started."

01;19;28;05 "- Wildfire smoke is quite different"

01;19;30;22 "from other forms of air pollution"

01;19;33;29 "in, I would say, three different ways."

01;19;37;00 "First of all, when it is smoky outside,"

01;19;40;21 it can be very smoky outside.

01;19;43;15 So the magnitude of the exposure

01;19;46;14 is just really different

01;19;48;13 from the magnitude of exposure

01;19;50;08 "you would experience from vehicles or industry."

01;19;56;28 "Second of all, it's highly episodic."

01;19;59;15 "Some summers are going to be really smoky,"

01;20;03;02 "some summers are going to be not very smoky at all."

01;20;06;05 We're certainly seeing a trend

01;20;08;22 "towards more and more smoky summers,"

01;20;11;29 "where if you're living in the West Coast of North America,"

01;20;15;18 "we've really had significant smoke events"

01;20;18;17 on the West Coast

01;20;19;20 "somewhere over the past 20 years."

01;20;22;15 "And the key difference, I would say,"

01;20;25;02 "is that it's not amenable to regulation. (laughing)"

01;20;28;14 "We know air pollution is bad for people,"

01;20;30;26 "and as a society, we've been working very hard"

01;20;33;15 "to reduce how much cars can emit,"

01;20;35;29 "to reduce how much industry can emit,"

01;20;38;05 "we can't do that with wildfire smoke."

01;20;40;25 "So while we're bringing these other source of exposure"

01;20;43;26 under really tight control,

01;20;46;00 "wildfire smoke is growing and growing and growing,"

01;20;48;26 meaning that it will dominate

01;20;51;17 "people's lifetime exposure to air pollution,"

01;20;54;00 in North America at least.

01;20;56;16 "- We've mostly had a success story"

01;20;58;16 "based on regulation of getting our air to be very clean."

01;21;02;10 "And in the eastern states, that's true,"

01;21;04;17 "that we see a decline in particulate matter"

01;21;07;15 over the last couple decades,

01;21;08;26 "but that's not true for the western states"

01;21;11;06 because of these wildfires.

01;21;12;26 "- If you grab a sample of wildfire smoke,"

01;21;15;22 and then 10 minutes later,

01;21;16;29 "you grab another sample of wildfire smoke,"

01;21;18;26 "you're gonna find completely different things"

01;21;21;02 in those two samples.

01;21;23;16 "- This phenomena of third-hand smoke."

01;21;26;08 So one of my family members

01;21;27;25 "has been smoking cigarettes in their house"

01;21;30;13 for the past 30 years.

01;21;32;08 "Then I see around the vents of their rooms"

01;21;35;17 this yellow deposit,

01;21;37;00 "this oily sort of liquid material."

01;21;39;28 "And that's the byproducts of that smoke."

01;21;42;25 We can be cooking a meal

01;21;44;20 "or we can be vacuuming the floor,"

01;21;47;01 and we can have these gases

01;21;49;08 "that are put into the air very quickly,"

01;21;51;22 and then have the potential

01;21;53;01 to react also very quickly.

01;21;55;04 "When they react, they can turn into things"

01;21;57;18 "that will stick to the surface of a house."

01;22;00;11 "And so they'll stay there for a long time,"

01;22;02;21 "and they have more and more time to react."

01;22;05;27 And as they react further,

01;22;07;25 "those chemicals might turn into smaller chemicals"

01;22;11;01 "that then can go back into the gas phase."

01;22;13;05 "And so we can breathe generations of chemicals"

01;22;16;20 that have existed on the surface

01;22;18;15 "that originally were put there in the gas phase."

01;22;23;07 "- What we're exposed to in different environments"

01;22;26;11 comes home with you.

01;22;28;15 Nail salon workers

01;22;30;14 are exposed day in and day out

01;22;34;09 to harmful chemicals

01;22;36;23 "that are contained within those products."

01;22;40;06 "The chemicals in the nail polish go into the air,"

01;22;43;14 "absorb onto her skin and onto her clothing."

01;22;46;19 "She then goes home and carries those chemicals with her."

01;22;51;15 "The same is true of the E-waste worker,"

01;22;53;11 "the same is true of many workers."

01;22;55;23 "What about the office environment?"

01;22;57;24 Lots of electronics,

01;22;59;13 lots of flame retardants.

01;23;01;25 We take them home.

01;23;04;10 "One thing I'm particularly concerned about is fast fashion."

01;23;08;12 Materials like cotton

01;23;09;21 "are grown with heavy pesticide use."

01;23;11;23 "Those materials are then transported"

01;23;13;19 "to another country for processing,"

01;23;16;10 "where a whole series of additives"

01;23;19;01 "are included in those textile fibers."

01;23;22;11 And it's not just cotton,

01;23;23;19 it's all the textiles.

01;23;25;04 They're turned into a material

01;23;27;23 that is not meant to be durable.

01;23;32;00 That textile starts peeling

01;23;34;22 as soon as you start wearing it.

01;23;37;04 Those fibers are coming loose

01;23;39;20 from the actual clothing

01;23;42;02 and going into the environment,

01;23;43;26 "including the person wearing that clothing"

01;23;46;28 breathing it in.

01;23;49;24 We've done testing in our lab,

01;23;51;21 "we've found elevated levels of phthalate plasticizers."

01;23;56;03 "We know that there's PFAS in, for example,"

01;23;59;20 water-repellent garments.

01;24;03;09 "Some garments have elevated levels of lead and arsenic."

01;24;07;29 Look for simple clothing

01;24;10;07 "without all sorts of appliques and shiny stuff,"

01;24;15;00 "and I hate to say this, even bright colors."

01;24;18;02 "Those bright colors are associated with some dyes"

01;24;20;15 that we have concerns with.

01;24;23;03 Try to go simple.

01;24;26;01 "- Water safety in the US is a focus."

01;24;28;08 We have regulations in place,

01;24;29;29 "we have utilities that are dedicated to making water safe."

01;24;34;09 "There's groups of people in agencies and organizations"

01;24;37;00 "working together to make that possible."

01;24;40;02 We still need to go someplace,

01;24;42;05 "we still need to better understand"

01;24;44;14 "why water changes once it gets into your home."

01;24;49;12 "What causes the changes to be bad?"

01;24;51;14 (inquisitive music)

01;24;52;26 As we bring in new technology,

01;24;55;02 how is that changing, if at all,

01;24;57;19 the water safety

01;24;59;18 so that we can use less water,

01;25;01;24 "get hot water faster to our faucets"

01;25;04;00 "so we don't have to wait five minutes?"

01;25;05;17 "All these questions still remain."

01;25;07;28 "Throughout my life, I've learned things"

01;25;09;29 "that I never thought I would learn,"

01;25;11;17 and it affected me personally.

01;25;13;08 "The way I've kind of dealt with that"

01;25;15;04 "is how a lot of people who contacted me"

01;25;18;05 are dealing with it,

01;25;19;11 "they go out and they seek information."

01;25;21;20 "A lot of people have talked to faucet manufacturers,"

01;25;24;08 talked to pipe manufacturers,

01;25;25;20 "they talk to the health department,"

01;25;27;07 they call EPA,

01;25;28;18 "they're asking them about water safety."

01;25;31;09 They'll call me,

01;25;32;17 "they'll try to put all the information together"

01;25;34;01 "to make the best decision for their family."

01;25;37;27 Remember, all the solutions

01;25;39;17 "from each season of ""Home Diagnosis"""

01;25;41;13 "and all the extra information we can point you to"

01;25;44;02 "can help you make better decisions for your family."

01;25;47;14 "- Our final episode this season does exactly that."

01;25;50;09 "But the solutions are for specific challenges"

01;25;52;11 within our society,

01;25;53;20 "which is bigger than just the science."

01;25;56;06 "- Learn about all the opportunities"

01;25;57;21 for improvement in your home

01;25;59;14 "by visiting us at homediagnosis.tv."

01;26;02;05 Stay with us.

01;26;13;02 (inquisitive music continues)

01;26;26;04 (inquisitive music continues)

01;26;39;03 (inquisitive music continues)

01;26;44;06 "- [Child] ""Home Diagnosis"" is made possible"

01;26;46;17 by support from Broan-NuTone.

01;26;48;28 Better air, better life.

01;26;51;15 By the Got Mold? Test Kit.

01;26;53;15 Real science, real simple.

01;26;55;21 By AirCycler, Retrotec,

01;26;58;08 Rockwool and RenewAire.

01;27;00;26 "By generous support from these underwriters"

01;27;03;12 and by viewers like you.